Venture capital - a term we've all heard but maybe don't fully understand (this is a safe space to admit what we don't know and I'll be the first to say that fundraising and private equity are pretty confusing). What we do know is that many of the consumer brands we love that have had successful exits have received funding from VMG Partners - like Perfect Bar, KIND Bar, Pirates Booty, and Justin's to name a few. So we're lucky to have joining us today Wayne Wu, Managing Director at VMG Partners. If you aren't familiar with VMG, they are a private equity firm specializing in building iconic consumer brands. I'm a big fan of Wayne's podcast Unfinished Biz and reached out to ask him if he'd be willing to walk it way back for our Startup CPG community and take us through venture capital and private equity 101, and thankfully, he agreed. I learned a ton from this conversation and I hope you do as well.

Listen in as Wayne shares:

• Definitions for private equity and venture capital
• How a venture capital fund works (you've all maybe figured out at this point that I'm a nerd but I LOVED this part! You may need to listen to it twice though; it's just packed with info and such an interesting peek behind the curtain that helps us understand investor behavior and motivations)
• VMG's framework for evaluating brands, including total addressable market, gross margin, supply chain, founder fit, and velocities and key metrics and definitions for those areas
• How VMG sources deals and why you should reach out to VMG or talk to their team at the next trade show no matter your brand's "stage"
• What VMG's involvement with a brand looks like post-investment
• And more!

Episode Links:

• VMG Partners website
• Wayne's LinkedIn
• The Unfinished Biz Podcast

Show Links:

• Join the Startup CPG Slack community (8K+ members and growing!)
• Follow @startupcpg
• Visit host Jessi's Linkedin or website
• Questions or comments about the episode? Email Jessi at jessi@startupcpg.com